TED Blog
10 January 2012
Award-winning teen-age science in action: Video on TED.com
In 2011 three young women swept the top prizes of the first Google Science Fair. At TEDxWomen Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose, and Naomi Shah described their extraordinary projects– and their route to a passion for science. (Recorded at TEDxWomen 2011, December 2011, in New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. Duration: 16:17)
Watch the Google Science Fair winners’ talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
10 January 2012
TED Book: “Controlling Cancer” offers bold plan to stop a killer
The scourge of cancer has ripped through bodies, families, and generations for so long and with such power that it feels almost invincible. Biologist Paul Ewald—widely regarded as the leading expert in the emerging field of evolutionary medicine—and co-author Holly Swain Ewald may have found a way of attacking the intractable killer, which they detail in our new TED Book Controlling Cancer: A Powerful Plan for Taking on the World’s Most Daunting Disease. The Ewalds believe that viruses may be at the heart of the onset of cancer and we can attack the disease through an early attack on the virus. In this important study, they form an innovative plan for rethinking and eradicating one of the world’s deadliest diseases. We recently spoke with Paul about his new book.
Why is cancer so hard to fight?
Treating cancer involves both attacking and protecting human cells at the same time. It is difficult to devise chemotherapies or vaccines that have sufficient precision to damage the cancerous cells without harming the normal cells. Approaches to preventing cancer have included medical procedures that are not available to everyone or lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and reduction in sun exposure that have proven difficult for people to abide by. We’re just now beginning to develop new methods of control, such as vaccines against infectious causes of cancer, which circumvent these problems
What is new about your approach to controlling cancer?
We are using evolutionary principles to reformulate our understanding of cancer. This perspective allows us to understand major obstacles associated with some approaches and the unappreciated potential for others.
How are viruses so important in the onset and evolution of the disease?
Viruses evolve to compromise a cell’s fundamental barriers to cancer in a variety of ways. These manipulations allow them to persist within people for long periods of time. The end result is that viruses push infected cells to the brink of cancer. Mutations finish the process.
We often hear that lifestyle choices and hereditary factors play a big part in the onset of cancer. Is that true?
Cancers are caused by combinations of factors. A balanced assessment of the causes of cancer must address all three categories of causes—hereditary factors, infectious agents, and noninfectious environmental exposures. But we understand the relative importance of these causes and the interactions between them for only about a quarter of all human cancer. Family studies tell us that hereditary factors play a relatively small role in common cancers. Generally they increase a person’s vulnerability to infectious and noninfectious environmental agents. Lifestyles can play important roles because they can change the exposure to environmental hazards that cause mutations and to cancer-causing infections, and can alter the body’s defenses against cancer. A lifestyle that exposes skin to ultraviolet light, for example, can lead to skin cancer because ultraviolet rays cause mutations. A lifestyle that exposes a person to unprotected sex with many sexual partners or involves intravenous drug use can increase the risks of cancer because cancers causing infections are often transmitted by sex, intimate kissing, and contaminated needles.
How will we fight cancer in the future?
Prevention is better than cure, and cure is better than palliative care. If we shape the future well we will be shifting efforts toward prevention. Because cancer is almost always caused by combinations of factors, we need to identify those causes of cancer that can be prevented effectively and with low cost. Evolutionary considerations tell us that chemotherapy and vaccines that target the cancer cells will almost always be associated with serious adverse effects on normal cells. When cancers are caused by infections we have better options because infectious organisms, being different from human cells, can be targeted with less damage to human cells. We can prevent infection by vaccination and blocking of transmission. Increasingly we should be able to treat cancer-causing infections by therapeutic vaccines, antiviral compounds, and sometimes even by antibiotics, as is now the case for some stomach cancers. The crystal ball is a bit murky because we don’t yet know how many human cancers are caused by infection–It is at least 20% and at most about 95%. Evolutionary considerations suggest that it will turn out to be higher rather than lower within this range. Let’s hope so, because in that case we should be able to prevent or cure most human cancer.
Controlling Cancer: A Powerful Plan for Taking on the World’s Most Daunting Disease is part of the TED Books series, which is available for the Kindle and Nook as well as on Apple’s iBookstore.
06 January 2012
High-velocity innovation: Fellows Friday with Jodie Wu
How did you get interested in innovating solutions for problems in developing nations?
I first went to Tanzania as part of MIT’s D-Lab, a multidisciplinary course on development of appropriate technologies, innovation, and creative capacity-building to alleviate poverty. Among the principles taught is the concept of co-creation. Are you familiar with it? There was a phase in development where Westerners were saying, “Oh, if we just give people in developing nations tractors — i.e., technology that worked for us — it’ll be great.” What we didn’t realize was that we were dumping technology into a market where people had no idea how it worked. So now there’s lots of tractors all over, rusting. No spare parts are available because they were designed for the Western world. In contrast, co-creation is the concept of inventing new technologies alongside the people who will use it — having their input as well as ours. When two rivers meet, they meet at a confluence. Co-creation involves making confluent technologies: merging two ideas into one that’s better than either one on its own.
Did you go to Tanzania with an idea in mind, or did you go to identify a problem and come up with a solution?
We had to identify a problem before going, and build community partners, and then come up with the technology or solution that we thought would work. My project was a pedal-powered maize sheller. I actually started with a design from Guatemala, which had been used for the past 20 years. I didn’t invent this technology, but adapted it so it could be packed into a suitcase and moved more easily. But when I got to Tanzania, I saw that the technology was still completely inadequate — expensive, bulky. Why would a smallholder farmer want to own this machine? If he has two acres, he’ll have finished everything he needs to do with it after two days. Alternatively, who would want to lug their maize from place to place to get it shelled?
So we turned the idea on its head. I thought, “Let’s plug the machine into a bicycle — and also use the bicycle as a platform to bring the technology to the people.” So now the technology is shared among the community: it can be biked from place to place. Then when it’s out of season, a new machine can be plugged in, leveraging the bicycle as a tool of empowerment in itself.
At first, we rode the bicycle shellers out to the farms to shell maize. But then people started renting the bike shellers themselves, and some began offering it to others as a service, giving rise to an entrepreneurial model.
05 January 2012
SixthSense: Get the open-source code
Two years ago, inventor Pranav Mistry demoed the SixthSense technology on the TED stage — and talked about open-sourcing the software behind it. SixthSense is a wearable interface that enables interaction between digital information and the physical world through hand gestures. (Watch his TEDTalk to see how it works.)
As promised, Pranav and his team have open-sourced the code for anyone to use and contribute at www.code.google.com/p/sixthsense. Download the code and create your own SixthSense device, join a discussion group and augment the codebase.
05 January 2012
The global power shift: Paddy Ashdown on TED.com
Paddy Ashdown claims that we are living in a moment in history where power is changing in ways it never has before. In a spellbinding talk at TEDxBrussels he outlines the three major global shifts that he sees coming. (Recorded at TEDxBrussels 2011, November 2011, in Brussels, Belgium. Duration: 18:30.)
Watch Paddy Ashdown’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
04 January 2012
Life’s third act: Jane Fonda on TED.com
Within this generation, an extra 30 years have been added to our life expectancy — and these years aren’t just a footnote or a pathology. At TEDxWomen, Jane Fonda asks how we can think about this new phase of our lives. (Recorded at TEDxWomen 2011, December 2011, in New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. Duration: 11:20)
Watch Jane Fonda’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
31 December 2011
What’s it like to give a TEDx talk? Speakers tell their stories
Barefoot Foodie onstage at TEDxBGSU. Photo: Enoch Wu
If your New Year’s resolution is to give a TEDx talk yourself — or to silence your inner monologue that thinks “I can’t do public speaking” — read a few of these stories, written by people who got up on the TEDx stage this year. They’re brave, prepared, and honest about what it takes to take the stage.
For instance, here’s a dialogue that Brittany Gibbons, the Barefoot Foodie, had with a friend before TEDxBGSU this fall:
I don’t know how to be good at this, Andy.
You will be amazing.
Or this could be the biggest thing I fail at, ever.
Unlikely. Nothing could beat you half slipping into the grave hole at my grandma’s funeral.
Well that’s for sure, they should mark those better.
Janice Tanton felt the same way before speaking at TEDxCalgary:
It took me two weeks to think through whether or not I could do this — to break through the safe, quiet solititude of my cocoon-like studio and step into the stage spotlight to share.
… and she came through with a deep insight into why we feel this way:
Fear, in my opinion, is just a misguided form of creativity.
Security expert Jeremiah Grossman has given hundreds of public presentations. But when he started to lose his anxiety and nervousness about public speaking … it felt wrong:
Had I finally overcome? I’m not an introspective person so it wasn’t until very recently that I think I figured it out. In 2011 my public presentations weren’t pushing the envelope as much as in years past. The content was good to be sure, but it also focused on “safe” business level subjects and incrementally advancing work from previous years. In short, I really wasn’t putting myself out there as far as I’m used to. In my case, the feeling or fear and terror arises when pushing forth an idea or a concept and unsure if people will think its uncompelling or totally idiotic. A chance you take.
That’s about when I got a call from the TED offering a speaking slot in TEDxMaui. We got to talking about my work and discussing an idea worth spreading. It didn’t take long. Then all of a sudden I’m thrust right back into fear and terror mode, but now that I understand it, the feeling is almost comforting. It signals that I have an opportunity to take things in my industry, in our industry, to a new level — or of course drive right off a cliff. Either way it’ll be a good show! :)
“Everyone should give a TED talk,” writes Doug Johnson, after being inspired at TEDxPhiladelphiaED:
So here is my question: Could you give a TED talk inspired by a personal passion for what you do? What would it be about? What would others learn from it? What makes you look forward to the next day even after a rough time at work? What do you take time to reflect on?
(Doug gave a TEDxTalk himself last year at TEDxASB, so he knows what he’s talking about. He says: “These TED talks are tougher to do than one might think.”)
Verena Delius spoke at TEDxBerlin, and in her prep, she discovered the upside of the 18-minute limit:
TED limits your talk to a maximum of 18 minutes. This leads to clearer thoughts, a clearer structure, stronger take-aways and a more concise train of argumentation of the speakers. You can´t spend too much time on irrelevant points that don´t bring across a message and you have to focus on the important points.
And in a guest post on Jeff Goins‘ blog, John Yates shares “Four Keys to Speaking at Your Next Local TEDx Talk.” Here’s one of his insights after a day at TEDxNashville:
1. Be an amateur: David Mead, a Nashville singer-songwriter, told a story of his friend who was humble enough to admit he had never heard of the Beatles, which deeply resonated with me. I thought: How many times have I missed out on learning amazing new things, because I wanted to appear as an expert?
Do you have a story of speaking at a TEDx — or insights from attending one — that you’d like to share? Hit the comments below, or write a blog post and let us know about it!
26 December 2011
Countdown: 18 ideas that will change the world in 2012
All month on the Huffington Post, we’ve been counting down 18 great ideas from 2011 that we think will change the world in 2012 and beyond. Today’s post ends the countdown with a powerful idea: Kids save the world! Watch John Hunter’s TEDTalk on his World Peace Game and read his essay on the Huffington Post.
And catch up on all 18 great ideas — with original essays from the speakers (and friends) that bring their ideas right up to date at the end of a turbulent, fascinating year. From world politics to new technologies, from education to psychology, recap the ideas that we think (and we hope!) will shape the coming decade.
See the full #18Ideas countdown on the Huffington Post >>
23 December 2011
When NORAD tracked Santa: Bruno Bowden on the TED Blog
A TED Blog premiere video: At this year’s TEDActive, in Palm Springs, engineer Bruno Bowden tells the amazing story of NORAD’s quest to track Santa — and how Bruno’s employer now continues the quest:
Read more on the official Google Blog >>
(This year’s countdown begins Dec. 24 at 2am Eastern.)
23 December 2011
There are no scraps of men: Alberto Cairo on TED.com
Alberto Cairo’s clinics in Afghanistan used to close down during active fighting. Now, they stay open. At TEDxRC2 (the RC stands for Red Cross/Red Crescent), Cairo tells the powerful story of why — and how he found humanity and dignity in the midst of war. (Recorded at TEDxRC2, November 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland. Duration: 19:03)
Watch Alberto Cairo’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
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